HPA module for active antenna applications

Results of a Ku band High Power Amplifier (HPA) module demonstrator based on solid state devices for active antenna application is described in this paper. The HPA module based on four combined GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC´s) produces an estimated output power of 39.2 dBm and has shown an estimated Power Added Efficiency (PAE) of 31.5% over 1 GHz frequency band. The power combining is based on a spatial combining technique using waveguide TE10 mode to quasi-TEM microstrip mode transformation and has shown very attractive results in terms of combining loss (<; 0.2 dB). This paper demonstrates the potential of a spatial power combining technique associated to solid state devices for delivering high power. This is in fact a promising candidate for application like active antennas.